The present invention relates generally to apparatus for and methods of inputting music-performance control data, and more particularly to a technique which can effectively improve and control the quality of performance tones generated on the basis of previously-provided automatic performance data of, for example, a piece of music by imparting control data, pertaining performance effects such as in tone pitch, volume and color, to the automatic performance data and editing the automatic performance data.
Techniques of inputting control data, such as pitch bend and volume control data continuously varying over time, and imparting the thus-input control data to automatic performance data have been known, one of which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI-9-6346. The disclosed technique is characterized primarily by prestoring, for each desired type of musical instrument, a plurality of control data templates each made up of a control data train that corresponds to a rise to fall of an instrument""s tone and selecting and incorporating a desired one of these prestored control data templates into the automatic performance data.
Specifically, the conventionally-known techniques prestore control data templates corresponding to typical styles of rendition, for each of the musical instruments. However, each of these control data templates is arranged in such a simplified form as to merely express characteristics of the musical instrument to a certain degree and never provides for a faithful reproduction of characteristics of an actual performance tone of the musical instrument in question. Thus, even when a human operator or player believes that he or she has selected one of the control data templates fitting a desired style of rendition of guitar or the like and imparted it to automatic performance data, an actual reproduction of the automatic performance data would often prove to be unsatisfactory in that the style of rendition expressed in the reproduced performance is not what the human operator initially intended or far from the performance and style of rendition of a corresponding natural instrument. For these reasons, with the conventional techniques, it has been very difficult to impart control data which allow performance in various styles of rendition with high quality as afforded by the natural instruments.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for and method of inputting music-performance control data which can readily impart, to music performance data, high-quality performance expressions as afforded by natural instruments.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an apparatus for inputting music-performance control data which comprises: memory storing a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition; a supply device adapted to supply music performance data; an operator device; and a processor coupled with the memory, supply device and operator device. The processor in the present invention is arranged to: select a desired style of rendition in response to operation of the operator device and in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data; and read out, from the memory, one or more of the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition, so that a characteristic of the selected style of rendition is imparted to the selected notes in the music performance data.
According to the present invention, there are prestored in the memory a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms obtained by actually playing acoustic musical instruments in various styles of rendition. Desired style of rendition is selected with respect to or in corresponding relation to desired one or more notes included in the music performance data, and one or more control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition are read out from the memory. When a tone is to be generated on the basis of the music performance data, the read-out control data are used to set and control characteristics of that tone. With such arrangements, the apparatus of the present invention readily achieves high-quality renditions as afforded by natural instruments.
For example, the music performance data may be automatic performance data. In such a case, the processor may be arranged to incorporate style-of-rendition designating information, indicative of the selected style of rendition, into a sequence of the music performance data, and the style-of-rendition designating information is used to read out, from the memory, the one or more control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition. The apparatus of the present invention may further comprise a storage for storing a performance sequence, in which case the sequence of the music performance data, having the style-of-rendition designating information incorporated therein, is stored in the storage.
As another example, the music performance data may be data generated by a real-time performance on a keyboard or other performance operator device. In this case, the processor may be arranged to: select a desired style of rendition in real time in response to operation of the operator device and in corresponding relation to the music performance data supplied in real time by the supply device; read out, from the memory, the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition; and control a characteristic of a tone corresponding to the supplied music performance data in real time in accordance with the read-out control data, to thereby generate the tone corresponding to the supplied music performance data. Of course, the selection and impartment of the desired style of rendition may be conducted in real time, during the course of an automatic performance, in corresponding relation to the music performance data supplied in real time.
Further, the plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to partial sounding segments of a tone, and each of the partial sounding segments may correspond to any one of a plurality of segmental states of the tone from the rise to fall thereof, such as in the segments commonly called xe2x80x9cattackxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cbodyxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9creleasexe2x80x9d. With such arrangements, an optimum style of rendition can be input and an optimum rendition can be realized on the basis of the thus-input style of rendition, for each of the partial sounding segments. In this way, the apparatus of the present invention readily achieves high-quality renditions as afforded by natural instruments.
The plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to a style of rendition that pertains to a plurality of notes to be performed in succession; examples of such a style of rendition include xe2x80x9ccrescendoxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cdecrescendoxe2x80x9d and the like which involve a plurality of notes, and, perhaps, grace note impartment. The plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to a style of rendition that pertains to a connection between two successive notes. Examples of such a style of rendition include xe2x80x9ctiexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cslurxe2x80x9d.
The memory may have stored therein, in association with each style of rendition, at least two of control data indicative of a pitch variation over time, control data indicative of an amplitude variation over time and control data indicative of a tone color variation over time. Use of the control data indicative of the timewise variations of these tonal factors allows optimum control to be performed on each individual style of rendition. Further, the memory may have stored therein control data corresponding to a plurality of different tonal factors, in association with each individual style of rendition. In this case, each selectable style of rendition may correspond to one partial sounding segment of a tone, and in response to selection of a particular one of the styles of rendition, a plurality of the control data corresponding to the tonal factors of the partial sounding segment associated with the particular style of rendition may be read out from the memory. Such arrangements allow a desired style of rendition to be input appropriately for each of the partial sounding segments, thereby readily achieving high-quality renditions based on the thus-input styles of rendition.
Further, the memory may have stored therein a plurality of control data different from each other in degree of control, in association with each group nominally similar styles of rendition. In this case, the processor may be arranged to select the desired style of rendition by performing a combination of operations of selecting a group of nominally similar styles of rendition and selecting one of the degrees of control represented by the selected group of styles of rendition. For example, for a xe2x80x9cbend-upxe2x80x9d rendition of a wind instrument, two or more different control data, rather than just one control data, are prestored in the memory which correspond to different levels of xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdepthxe2x80x9d that is one of the control factors of the bend-up rendition. Such arrangements also readily achieve high-quality renditions.
Further, the plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to at least one of a plurality of styles of rendition performable on wind instruments which typically include bend-up, bend-down, bend-downup, grace-up, grace-down, chromatic-up, chromaticdown, gliss-up, gliss-down, staccato, vibrato, shortcut, tenuto, slur, crescendo and decrescendo renditions. This arrangement allows styles of rendition, unique to or peculiar to various brass or woodwind instruments, to be input with ease, and also readily achieves performances in these rendition styles.
Further, the plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to at least one of a plurality of styles of rendition performable on rubbed string instruments, such as a guitar and bass, which typically include choking, gliss-up, gliss-down, vibrato, bend-downup, shortcut, mute, hammer-on, pull-off, slide-up, slide-down, crescendo and decrescendo renditions. This arrangement allows styles of rendition, peculiar to various rubbed string instruments, to be input with ease, and also readily achieves performances in these rendition styles.
Further, the plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to at least one of a plurality of styles of rendition performable on wind instruments, such as a violin, which typically include bend-up, grace-up, grace-down, staccato, detache, vibrato, bend-downup, shortcut, mute, chromatic-up, chromatic-down, gliss-up, gliss-down, tenuto, slur, crescendo and decrescendo renditions. This arrangement also allows styles of rendition, peculiar to various rubbed string instruments, to be input with ease, and also readily achieves performances in these rendition styles.
The control data corresponding to one style of rendition, which is stored in the memory, may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least one of a plurality of rendition control factors including a depth and speed of the rendition and a specific number of tones involved in the rendition. For the bend-up rendition, for example, the control data may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least one of the xe2x80x9cdepthxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d. Further, for the grace-up and grace-down renditions, the control data may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least one of the xe2x80x9cnumber of tonesxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d. For the chromatic-up and chromatic-down renditions, the control data may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least the xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d. For the gliss-up and gliss-down renditions, the control data may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least the xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d. Further, for the vibrato rendition, the control data may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least one of the xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cdepthxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clengthxe2x80x9d. For the shortcut rendition, the control data may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least the xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d. Similarly, for the tenuto rendition, the control data may include a plurality of variations pertaining to at least the xe2x80x9cspeedxe2x80x9d.
The processor may be further arranged to generate a parameter for controlling the selected style of rendition and use the thus-generated parameter to modify the control data read out from the memory in response to the selected style of rendition. By thus modifying the control data stored in the memory, it is possible to expand the variations of the styles of rendition inputtable and impartable via the inventive apparatus.
It should also be appreciated that the present invention is not limited to the style-of-rendition inputting apparatus as described above, and may be implemented as an electronic musical instrument or electronic music apparatus which is capable of generating a tone with a characteristic of an input style of rendition.
Further, the apparatus of the present invention may have only a tone reproducing function of the present invention without being equipped with the style-of-rendition inputting function. Namely, the present invention also provides an electronic music apparatus comprising: a memory storing a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition; a supply device adapted to supply a performance sequence including music performance data and style-of-rendition designating information indicative of a style of rendition selected in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data, the style-of-rendition designating information being used to read out, from the memory, one or more of the control data which correspond to the selected style of rendition; and a processor coupled with the memory and the supply device. The processor in this invention is arranged to: read out the control data corresponding to the style-of-rendition designating information from the memory, in accordance with the music performance data and style-of-rendition designating information of the performance sequence; and generate a tone corresponding to the music performance data with a characteristic controlled in accordance with the control data read out from the memory.
The present invention may be constructed and implemented not only as the apparatus invention as discussed above but also as a method invention. The present invention may also be implemented as a program for execution by a processor such as a computer and DSP, as well as a machine-readable storage medium storing such a program. Further, the present invention may be implemented as a storage medium storing control data corresponding to various styles of rendition.